


Game Over (jousting for first)

by JuncoBirds



Series: TWEWYTOBER 2020 a la Junco [3]
Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen, TWEWYTOBER 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:02:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27304567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuncoBirds/pseuds/JuncoBirds
Summary: Laughter fills the arcade as the kids try and best the new high score.
Series: TWEWYTOBER 2020 a la Junco [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984511
Kudos: 9





	Game Over (jousting for first)

_Tap tap, tap-tap._

Beat hangs over Neku’s shoulder.

_Tap tap- taptaptaptap._

Rhyme squeezes her fists close to her chest.

A popping, pixilated roar marks the end of the round. Neku flails his arms, nearly taking out Beat in the process. He huffs, “whatever. He can keep his first place.”

“Ey, calm down ‘Phones. You can get ‘im!”

“Yeah!” Rhyme encourages, her hands reaching for the joystick. “My turn!” She taps out of the credits and back to the main screen, the letters flashing in red and yellow text.

“Good luck,” Neku tries his hardest not to sigh.

Hanging out at the arcade for the evening sounded like a good idea. Until they showed up and discovered that Rhyme’s high score on her favorite game had been bested by some ‘PervasiveSheetMusic’.

_Really?_

The credits barely have room for all those characters.

Not only that, but evidently Rhyme only likes this _one_ particular game. And she’s dead set on getting her spot back, or at least making sure one of her friends gets it.

Neku takes a moment to step back and scan the thin crowd for Shiki and Eri. Both of them had never been to an arcade and took to it like glue. Eri crowds one of the dancing games while Shiki cheers her on. Both took turns at Rhyme’s favorite game before going on to explore the rest of the arcade. Rhyme encouraged them to roam, making sure that they got time to play and not- Neku doesn’t know how to describe this logically- bust sweat and tears over re-claiming first place on an old arcade game.

Is this what friends do for fun?

The sounds of the arcade come back to Neku slowly, the bops and tunes of the games rhythmic and calming. Beneath it all, dancing strings play in laughter that bubbles through the electronic buzz. Cables hum and footsteps dash over cracked and lopsided tiles. Chatter wafts about, overflowing the room and echoing harshly over the floor. The laughter persists, a taunt, a dare. _‘Best me’_ it challenges, not from a single point, ubiquitous, flowing and swimming throughout the room.

On screen, Rhyme’s ostrich loads with a series of electric bops, and she prances her avatar around the screen in its four-frame animated glory. The claws of the sprite tap like sticks against rocks as it crosses the screen. Low rolling hums of the buzzards spawning in hones her attention to the screen.

Beat goes back to Rhyme. Strange, he was standing right next to Neku and he barely registered his friend.

Regardless, they’ll re-take the throne.

In the meantime, he pulls out his phone to compose (ha.) a strongly-worded text to Josh.

The _bastard_. If he has the time to best Rhyme in videogames, he has time to come encourage her too.

The laughter falls into snickering as soon as Neku hits send.

**Author's Note:**

> About to go participate in NaNoWriMo. Might vanish into the void for a while; might come out with a story. Who knows. Thanks for reading!


End file.
